Easily add and model something not in the shipping version.
For example, you can add your own applications, drivers, resources, and icons.
Configure Designer to use a different editor.
Configure all file types (for example, .xml and .txt) to use your editor of choice. Eclipse-based editors work best, but you can also include various artifacts (for example, word processing documents and spreadsheets). The native editor is automatically integrated into Designer if the platform supports it.
Develop and debug in Java*.
If you install Designer plug-ins into a full Eclipse install, you can do Java development and debugging, ANT, C#, and UML modeling, all in the same tool alongside Designer. This has particular value to Identity Manager driver writers (Java or C) who want the tools all together.
Use public APIs.
Identity Manager uses fully published public Eclipse APIs, an underlying project data model that is consistent with open industry standards in its format, and published Eclipse extension points.
Though not public yet, a strong set of APIs and extension points is being developed to make it easy to add your own integrated wizard, editor, process, view, menu, toolbar item, or help page. For the most part, you can use the public APIs and extension points that Eclipse already provides. We are further augmenting that with additional APIs and extension points, based on Eclipse standards, to give you more power and options.
We use these APIs ourselves. Many internal developers are currently using them. When they are stable enough, they will be made public. We are not appending APIs as an afterthought, but building them in from the beginning. We fully support the open model, patterns, and API standards as outlined by Eclipse, rather than taking a proprietary approach.
In the future, with an off-the-shelf Eclipse book and knowledge of our extension points, you should be able to contribute very rich content to Designer. You will have an abundance of books, resources, and forums in the Eclipse community to address most of your needs. Some developers are having success doing this now, even without access to our APIs.